Techniques for the preventive or predictive maintenance of machinery based upon the detection and analysis of vibration have been employed by industry for a considerable period of time. Various approaches to vibration monitoring have been utilized, ranging from the use of rather simple, hand-held vibration meters to highly complex, permanently installed systems which essentially carry out continuous monitoring of machine mounted transducers along with computer based analysis of all monitored data. Such analysis may include, for example, trending techniques for break down prediction, the providing of threshold related comparisons to generate warnings and the like or for carrying out an automatic shut down of machinery to avoid catastrophic failure.
Complexity and costs associated with the latter comprehensive monitoring systems generally have limited their application to correspondingly elaborate industrial processes. Additionally, as such systems have become more sophisticated, the degree of human contribution to an analysis of machine condition, unfortunately, has become more contracted in scope. For the most part, industrial entities experiencing normal rates of growth or expansion commence preventative maintenance procedures utilizing available personnel to manually carry out the reading and recordating of vibrational data. Typically, preventive maintenance engineering personnel will record the amplitude of vibration for a given machine as well as the direction of measurement so carried out and a visual impression of overall machine condition, the latter representing the desirable human component of process maintenance. These data then are hand compiled, comparisons are made by maintenance pesonnel with predetermined vibration threshold levels and the like. Additionally, data collected over predetermined intervals of time may be assembled and examined in time scale fashion to determine trends by appropriate manual calculations. While the occasion for error in collecting, compiling and analyzing machine vibration data by hand is obvious, this basic approach remains cost effective for industrial facilities of lesser scope. Additionally, the manual technique of data collection and analysis does derive an advantageous on-site human inspection of machinery. As the particular industrial facility utilizing a vibration monitoring preventative maintenance program expands or acquires machinery requiring more extensive vibration monitoring, elaborate systems may be employed at correspondingly higher capital investment.
A vibration preventive maintenance system enjoying the advantages of on-site human perceptive input while minimizing the occurrence of human error is desirable if available at reasonable investment levels. In the latter regard, a determination of the value of an investment in vibration monitoring equipment must further consider the amenability such equipment to future upgrading toward more sophisticated capabilities such that the preventive maintenance program may grow in concert with projected growth patterns of the user facility.